ESA entrants for 2014 CanSat competition selected

Once again, the demand for places in the competition was very high, with over 50 proposals received from teams in 14 ESA Member States. Nine of these teams were selected to take part in the launch campaign, which will be hosted at the Andøya Rocket Range in Norway, 1-5 June 2014.

The winning teams and proposals were:

• Secondary Technical School of Electrotechnical Engineering from Jecna in the Czech Republic. Their PragSAT payload will measure 3D acceleration and magnetic fields.
• Europaschule SZ SII Utbremen from Bremen in Germany. Their Apollo 12 experiment will measure the temperature and humidity profile during descent.
• Gymnasium Vegesack, also from Bremen in Germany. Their Recyclable Ecological Designs (R.E.D.) experiment will test an alternative energy system based on solar panels.
• 3rd General Lyceum of Mytiline from Strati Myrivili in Greece. Their Aristarchus CanSat will make observations of the Sun.
• Lyceum of Viannos from the Greek island of Crete. Their ViannoSat experiment will test deployment of a tethered satellite to measure Earth's magnetic field.
• Liceum Ogólnokształcące from Kraków in Poland. Their Kraksat 2014 payload will measure radiation changes to detect life.
• National College of Computer Science from Piatra Neamt in Romania. Their Ro-Sat One CanSat will obtain data during descent and after landing with a rover.
• “Carmen Sylva” High School from Eforie Sud, also in Romania. Their Carmen Sylva 1 CanSat will study the atmosphere and magnetic field, and attempt a controlled landing.
• IES El Greco from Toledo in Spain. Their GrecoSat will measure atmospheric gases and attempt a landing cushioned by an air bag.

This year, up to 16 launch slots are available in total. In addition to the ESA selection, national competition organisers are automatically offered a place for their winning team and seven of them are also expected to take part in the 2014 competition.

Each team will comprise between 4 and 10 high school students aged 16 years or over, assisted by a teacher or tutor. The teachers of the chosen teams will attend an introductory workshop led by NAROM. The teachers’ workshop will take place 24-25 January 2014 at ESA’s Space Technology Centre (ESTEC) in The Netherlands.

Each teacher will receive a CanSat kit and instruction on topics such as sensors and signal analysis; data handling and data transmission; software installation and programming. A tour of the world-class satellite facilities at ESTEC will be included.

The first European CanSat competition was held in August 2010.  Since then, dozens of teachers and hundreds of high school students from ESA Member States have enjoyed the challenge of building and flying their mini payloads – each no larger than a soft drink can – on a small rocket or balloon.